the strAIGht dope

This week I am going to bookend my entry with a couple of videos. The first is something that I saw on The Colbert Report, one of my favorite shows and primary sources of political news. Colbert challenged the Republican answer to Barack Obama, RNC Chairman Michael Steele, to a rap-off. Since Steele is a class act, he did not come onto the show to battle with Stephen. So, in typical Daily Show/Colbert Report fashion, they cut a bunch of television appearances to create their own. I found it to be both hilarious and impressive.



The big news of the past few weeks has been the incomparable incompetence and appalling arrogance of American International Group. As you should all know, AIG received a hefty chunk of bailout money, something in the neighborhood of $175 billion. When I first began hearing about the proposed bailouts during the summer of ’08, it seemed like a pretty bad idea. I had Jarom ask some smart people whose opinions I respect (Mars and Bruce) whether it was a good idea or not. The consensus was that it isn’t good, but it is probably needed to avoid a catastrophic collapse of the economy. Obviously I can’t say what would have happened without the bailout, but the further we go along, the more I think it shouldn’t have happened. One of the biggest complaints that I have about it is that the government is giving out tons of money without any control as to what is done with it. And then the government gets mad when things aren’t done the way they want them to be done. And then they overreact and go crazy. Case in point: AIG executives are due to receive about $165 million in bonus money. This makes people mad, because in general people don’t like other people to make more money than they do. Unfortunately, these are contracts and the legal ramifications for not paying the money are significant. So Congress channels their inner 2-year old and decides to levy a 90% tax on those individuals. I am pretty sure that it won’t fly and in a few weeks some athlete will test positive for steroids and divert our representatives attention once again, but the logic behind it irritates me. If Congress didn’t like the way they ran their business, don’t loan them more money!! If AIG wants to pay huge bonuses, let them. The business will either succeed or fail, and capitalism will have worked its magic once again. But I hate the fact that our idiot congresspeople are now sticking their noses into all sorts of business.

Jarom got an email from his EQP today asking him if he would teach the quorum this Sunday. This is the second time he has had to teach in the last few months. Teaching the class was not listed as part of his job description but has been an unfortunate byproduct of being the quorum secretary. It isn’t nearly as bad as speaking in sacrament meeting, which Alixa inexplicably threatened to volunteer for last week. Only the threat of bodily injury kept her from seeking out the bishop and offering the Winn’s services. Since he was given no topic for the lesson, Jarom chose The Challenge to Become, a talk by Elder Holland that is among his favorites. He recommends it to all of you. [I don’t know if I have any non-LDS readers, but if I do, feel free to ask Jarom what on earth this paragraph is talking about.]

The NCAA tournament is now at the Elite Eight level, and we have a new leader(s): Dave Tilton and Cameo Bell. Congrats to them, and best of luck down the stretch.

The second video for this entry is a little embarrassing to me. I just shed last weekend, and have been feeling a little rotund, so I’ve put myself on a slight diet. Since I was feeling a little self-conscious, I chose not to share this information with Jarom. As a result, he got me a mouse that I really didn’t want to eat. The ensuing video is the result. I present it as exhibit A of why I will not be a threat to baby Jenna. I hope you enjoy it.

Sometimes, you just want a buddy